Review of Spark: A Burning Man Story (2013) by Filmgrinder S — 04 Sep 2014

If you've ever been curious about who are the people behind the organization of the Burning Man event, this is the documentary to see. The film covers both the event and the histories of the people behind the organization of the 2013 incarnation of the event. The film touches on how the event has changed over the years and how its growing popularity is pushing up against its founding philosophy of a sharing and artistic happening to potentially becoming another festival event with celebrities, elites, and catering.

The most amusing point of this film is to watch the moral and mental struggling of a group of extremely liberal, socialist, and authentically artistic hippies having to adopt rules, capitalist principals and become "the man" in order to keep the event going and in line. A necessary evil that you can see they truly hate and yet have to implement if anything is to get done. And yet once their feet hit the dusty ground of the playa, they still manage to keep their ways set while this latest Burning Man event is going on despite the catered commercialism that's beginning to seep in and pushing against the gates with controversial ticket lotteries.